"Fiat money is backed by men with guns; Bitcoin is not. So why should this thing have any value?"--Uber statist economist Paul Krugman.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Libertarians and other independents, time to face this reality: it takes money

We can't match them dollar for dollar, and we don't have to do so.

But we do have to raise money to play in the game.

The Gary Johnson campaign is a case in point regarding fundraising. Gary has qualified for Federal matching funds by raising the requisite $200k distributed among sufficient states (with the checks written by the correct proportion of left-handed people). His first "Everest" money bomb brought in over $58K. He received over $20K in donations at Freedom Fest, and the announcement of a $1 million pro-Johnson gift to a Libertarian PAC. The current "debate" money bomb is just shy of $44K.

By Romney/Obama standards these are pitiful numbers; they would not even refill the finger food bar on Air Force One.

But by third party (*not third party independently filthy rich candidates) standards, these are amazing totals and indicate something may be breaking our way. People are starting to make donations.

The same has to be true locally.

Just consider one election: Scott Gesty running for US House. The incumbent, John Carney, is not well liked even by his own party, is totally funded by special interest money, and has an abyssmal congressional record. That said, he has about $800K in the bank.

Tom Kovach, the eminently forgettable GOP sacrificial lamb, has raised somewhere between $100-200 K to spend in a losing effort.

Scott Gesty is primarily trying to raise a family, so there's not a lot of the personal money that the Carneys and the Kovachs of this election can throw around.

I'll tell you this: we could beat John Carney (or come awfully damn close) with $30,000. That's it. We've got the candidate, we've got issues, and with $30k believe it or not we could offset his financial advantage.

I know you probably can't write even the $1,200 max contribution check, that's cool. We're the little people trying to be heard over the trial lawyers who paid for John Carney (over $122,000 just from attorneys).

But you could afford $20, couldn't you? $20 buys on key radio commercial that will be heard by thousands. With radio and guerilla tactics and social media we can get the word out about Scott Gesty, even if we have to do it $20 at a time.